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Eli Manning’s sad reaction to Peyton’s success is priceless

It was a moment ripe for memes.

 

Josh Katzowitz

Internet Culture

Posted on Feb 8, 2016   Updated on May 27, 2021, 6:15 am CDT

Peyton Manning will be remembered as one of the best NFL quarterbacks in history. Eli Manning will not.

But one thing Eli had managed before Sunday night’s Super Bowl 50 that his older brother had not was winning two Super Bowl titles. As great as Peyton has been in his career, he’d only won a single Super Bowl in three chances. Until Sunday night, that is, because even though Peyton isn’t the force he used to be and even though he needed major help from the Broncos defense in order to beat the Panthers, he still won the second NFL title of his career.

Which means that Eli likely won’t have any major bragging rights when he eventually follows Peyton into retirement.

And the moment he seemed to realize that was deliciously caught on camera as Eli, sitting in box seats surrounded by his family, watched his brother hand off to C.J. Anderson for the game-sealing touchdown late in the fourth quarter. This was his reaction to the inevitable.

Naturally, that video was ripe for memes, and here are a few of our favorites.

The black and white version:

The Arrested Development/Simon and Garfunkel version:

But this vine, piping in the theme song to Curb Your Enthusiasm, tops them all.

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Still, Peyton explained away his brother’s reaction, telling CBS News, “Eli’s just like me. Eli is analyzing the game. He’s thinking about whether we were going to go for two and whether it was going to be reviewed. He wasn’t going to relax until that final second ticked off. I’ve had a great chance to celebrate with Eli. He’s very happy and proud of me, just like I’ve always been of him.”

All of that is probably true. But still, it reminds us of some pretty good advice Kanye West tweeted out last week.

(Sorry, this embed was not found.)

Screengrab via uhgglw/Reddit

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*First Published: Feb 8, 2016, 6:53 pm CST